I'm not a fan of wallpaper, though I'll admit there are some powder rooms on Houzz with beautiful, two-tone wallpaper that I love. The last time we bought a house we had to choose between two equally desirable, quite similar vintage houses--one with wallpaper on every wall (even in the hallways!) and one with painted walls throughout. In both cases we planned to repaint in colors of our choice, but we bought the house without the wallpaper because it was simply less work to repaint the painted walls than to strip a house full of someone else's tacky, outdated wallpaper. So by all means use wallpaper if you love it and will be in the home for awhile, but don't expect anyone else to appreciate it when you sell. Wallpaper (like patterned fabric) is just too individual a preference to translate easily into someone else's aesthetic.

Hi Neryl, A great little project that you can get a lot of satisfaction from. I wouldn't treat this room in isolation and instead look at making sure the rest of the house influences your decisions. There are some great suggestions here. My thoughts: - Replace floor tiles and tile the walls to the underside arch of the window. Use a white Johnson tile in brick format with black grouting, very economical. - No curtain on the window but I like the idea of the shutter, or use a film on the window but only if privacy is an issue. - Paint window frame white - Paint the rest of the room a feature colour - something rich and in keeping with the house. From the door handles I get the feeling the house is 30's/40s??? This will warm & tighten up the room with class. Could be a deep grey or green. - New wall hung vanity unit, keep it simple. Caroma have a great vintage range that are timeless, not faux replica. - If budget permits, a new toilet suite. Porcher have some economical models from discontinued lines, like the older style Cygnet. They come with the full warranty and are close coupled to reduce cleaning in nooks and crannies. - a new light fitting - say a simple frosted sphere, almost like a cotton ball. - a wall hung mirror in frame rather than anything contemporary. - wall mount everything including the toilet brush. All the best, and enjoy the transformation! Rebecca

I see wallpapered ceilings a bit in photos. See example. I can't imagine that would be easy to do! An application I did like was wallpaper between dark painted rafters. It was really effective. I don't envy the person who had to do that job. Or anyone who wants to remove it later. In my previous home, every room had been wallpapered sometime in the 80's. All bedrooms, hallway, living room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet. Quite a process to remove! I don't mind wallpaper but I didn't like the ones in that home. I think wallpaper can work really well in homes with a grander scale. High ceilings, architectural trims etc. In smaller homes, a restrained use is more appropriate IMO.

Thanks everyone for some terrific ideas. Could I ask annb1997 if you meant painting the stairs a dark colour or the walls? The stairs are timber but they are not a particularly nice colour, that is why I thought Jap blacking them would look dramatic and contrast with the main white wall. I agree that the other walls need repainting or perhaps a dramatic wall paper but with so much to choose from its all overwhelming.